Establishing a research culture for Archive Administration in the UK

Abstract

This paper is concerned with the current state of academic research within the discipline of archive administration in the UK. It identifies and examines a number of reasons why research output from the UK is so low when compared with activity on an international basis. These reasons include the historic nature of archival education in the UK, the expectations of training on the part of practitioners, perceptions of the value of research and archival theory within the UK profession, and the size and capacity of the archival academic community. This is contrasted with much greater activity and debate around the issue of research in Canada, the USA and Australia. The article makes a number of suggestions for fostering greater research activity in the UK such as a mapping of the research landscape to identify need, the development of a research agenda, and the introduction of modules in research training into postgraduate courses. The profile of current research activity could be raised by, for example, the publication of abstracts of masters' dissertations. Work carried out by organisations like the National Archives into areas such as digital preservation could also be recognised as research.